SWL Awards

Radio wasn’t made first as an advanced broadcasting station but it was made like a little amateur station. There were people who were operating transmitters and sending signals "on air" but those operators wouldn’t have any meaning if there wouldn’t be a wide audience of listeners.

All Continents SWARL Award is issued for hearing and confirming QSO's with following continents:

  • NA - North America
  • SA - South America
  • OC - Oceania
  • EU - Europe
  • AS - Asia
  • AF - Africa

QSO's with these continents must be heard and confirmed on five different amateur radio bands, with at least one QSO with any continent on any one band. 
For example:
14200 - NA
14300 - OC
1840 - EU
18170 -AS
7100 - AF
3800 - SA

The ITU Zone SWL Award is issued for hearing and confirming QSO's on five amateur radio bands with in one ITU zone. One Award is issued for one ITU zone and dependent on type of modulation as: SSB, CW, RTTY, etc. It can be issued as "General" (mixed modulation type).

The SWARL SWL Unique Prefix Award is issued for hearing and confirming 50, 100, 150, 200, 250 etc. unique prefixes. The prefix is the first part of the call sign, defining the area of location of the operationing station. Usually this is the first three characters of the call sign. 
for example:
1A4 in 1A4A
2E0 in 2E0IMS
RA6 in RA6LO
K5 in K5D

The SWARL SWL DXCC Award is issued for hearing and confirming 25, 50, 100, 150, 200, 250, etc. DXCC entities. Award can be dependent on modulation type or "General"

The SWARL SWL IOTA Award is issued for hearing and confirming QSO's with 10, 25, 50, 100, 150, etc. IOTA registered IOTA entities. Award can be dependent on modulation type or "General"

The Maidenhead Locator Award is issued for hearing and confirming QSO's with 25, 50, 100, 150, 200, etc. locations according to Maidenhead Grid Locator. Only the first four characters of the locator will be taken into consideration for this award. 
For example:
JJ00 from JJ00hh
IL28 from IL28bs
This award can be dependent on mode type or "General".

Numerous Ham Radio organizations offer special certificates  for operating achievements by Hams and SWL's. These awards are numerous and are suitable for framing and displaying in your Listening Post. These awards are for such accomplishments as Hearing all Continents, Verifying 100 Countries, Verifying 100 Call Prefixes, etc. At last estimate, there were in excess of 3,000 worldwide.